Troy Carter

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter speaks to the congregation at Victory Christian Center International in New Orleans on Oct. 18, 2026. Photo by Alexandra Stach [provided photo from Carter staffer]

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter applauds during the sermon at New Hope Baptist Church in New Orleans on Oct. 18, 2026. Photo by Alexandra Stach [provided photo from Carter staffer]

U.S. Rep. Troy Carter was listening intently when Bishop L. John Phoenix at Victory Christian church in New Orleans began his sermon Sunday by invoking the Bible.

“Your adversaries don’t have the advantage,” Phoenix told Carter and his congregants, who in turn encouraged the pastor by calling out, “Come on! You’re right!”

“Your adversaries don’t have the advantage,” Phoenix repeated.

That line could sum up Carter’s campaign as he seeks a third full term in the House to represent a New Orleans-anchored district that continues up the Mississippi River to Baton Rouge.

Carter, 62, is cruising to victory on Nov. 3 with little opposition from four opponents in a 10-parish district drawn by the state Legislature to elect a Black Democrat.

Still, however, Carter will face one major adversary back in Washington, the man he sometimes refers to as “the orange fella” – President Donald Trump.

Carter is buoyed by widespread predictions that Democrats will retake control of the House and have a bigger platform to push for restoring the Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid for the working poor, for scaling back the aggressive tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and for highlighting accusations of graft by Trump.

Carter is expected to play an expanded role in national affairs since he is running unopposed to be elected internally next month as the next chair of the 63-member Congressional Black Caucus.

“My term as chair of the CBC will dovetail into the picking of the next president, which will give me an opportunity to be at the table and highlight that all roads to the White House will go through the South,” Carter said Sunday as he drove from one campaign event to another.

The last two years have been frustrating for Carter, who prides himself on his ability to work with Republicans to benefit his constituents. Like other Democrats, Carter feels shut out by Republican members of Congress who he says have been toeing the partisan line over the past 21 months to avoid antagonizing Trump.

Because of his bipartisan mindset, Carter had to be prodded into specifying his complaints with the top two Republicans in the House — Speaker Mike Johnson, who represents northwest Louisiana, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who represents suburban New Orleans.

“I don’t want to sensationalize individuals,” Carter said as he drove on Interstate 10 on his way to LaPlace. “But there’s no question in my mind that our speaker of the House and our number two have been complicit in their following of Donald Trump. The speaker of the House voted for and led the charge for the Big Ugly Law.”

That’s the Democrats’ name for what Trump labeled the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Trump and Republicans highlight the parts that eliminate taxes on tips and overtime.

Carter and Democrats emphasize the parts that shower the bill’s biggest tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans and reduce health care subsidies for the poor. Carter also notes that the tax break on tips and overtime is temporary.

Carter noted that nearly half of the residents in Johnson’s district receive Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, and that many will lose benefits under the bill.

“How do you have 39%-40% of the people you represent fall prey to a bill that every independent body that has reviewed this law proves empirically that it will be devastating for those very people?” asked Carter. “Those are your people. Trump nor any Democratic president could convince me to vote against the interest of the people I represent. That’s not loyalty. That’s foolishness.”

Carter noted that the cuts to Medicaid are scheduled to begin next year, after the November midterm elections, and will cause an estimated 17 million people to lose health care insurance. Republicans say any coverage losses will result from efforts to reduce waste, fraud and abuse.

The Republican-controlled Legislature gave Carter most of New Orleans and most of the Black voter precincts in Jefferson Parish through the River Parishes up to Baton Rouge. That has left his district as the only one with a Black majority, although conservatives are in court arguing that the design violates the Constitution.

The one Republican challenging Carter is Peter Williams, whose campaign website says his family owns a tree farm and specialty crop business in Pointe Coupee Parish, north of Baton Rouge.

The website says he opposes abortion, supports the right for people to own and bear arms and views marriage as “between one man and one woman.”

Williams had not raised or spent any money on the race as of Sept. 30, according to the Federal Elections Committee website.

Carter has the support of numerous local Republicans, including Joe Lopinto, the Jefferson Parish sheriff.

“My job as sheriff is to work with individuals in Washington and Louisiana regardless of party,” Lopinto said. “Troy has certainly been a person I’ve been able to work with.”

A Libertarian candidate in the race is Lisa Ballay, whose website describes her as a nurse who is president of the West Jefferson Hospital Foundation.

“Republicans promised small government. Democrats promised competent government. Neither one delivered,” Ballay says on her website.

One no-party candidate is Walter “Rocky” Beach, whose website says he has worked for decades as a paramedic.

Another no-party candidate is Renada “Honey” Collins, who hasn’t created a campaign webpage.

Carter is paying no heed to the four as he runs for another term.

On Sunday, he visited three African American churches in New Orleans. At each stop, he urged people to vote early beginning on Tuesday.

Carter then headed to the Andouille Festival in LaPlace.

He began by speaking for several minutes inside the gospel tent.

“I’m ready to reconfirm my commitment to you to fight for a fair and just America, to fight for resources for environmental justice, economic opportunity, education, an economy that is inclusive of all people, infrastructure that fixes our roads and bridges and our pathways that sometimes flood,” he said.

Carter noted it was lunchtime, and he wanted to find something good to eat.

He had just bought a dish of mustard greens with andouille at one food booth when someone from another one beseeched him to purchase something at hers.

Two minutes later, after paying with his credit card, he took several bites of a giant fried turkey wing. At the request of the workers at that booth, he then took a photo with them and joined them in downing a shot of tequila.

“It went well with that spicy wing,” Carter said afterward.

Email Tyler Bridges at [email protected].